Purser replied that the effects of
allowing gay couples to marry remain unknown.

Nearly a decade before voters approved
Amendment 3, Utah lawmakers approved the nation's first law
prohibiting a state from recognizing the legal marriages of gay
couples. Utah is also home to The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, the Mormons, which played a prominent role in
passage of Proposition 8, California's now-defunct marriage ban.

The case was filed after the Supreme
Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which led to
federal recognition of the marriages of gay couples.